In 1999, composer Frank Wildhorn held the rare and impressive distinction of being the first American composer in 22 years to have three shows running simultaneously on Broadway: Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and The Civil War. After those three shows, he had many international successes including Cyrano, The Count of Monte Cristo, Carmen, Rudolf, and Tears of Heaven among them--the latter of which sold 15,000 tickets in just over three minutes in South Korea last month.

Now the Character Approved Wildhorn is back on Broadway in a big way this season with Wonderland. A New Alice. A New Musical, which is a re-telling of the classic story of Alice in Wonderland.

Before his Broadway career, Wildhorn was an extremely successful pop writer with an international hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" sung by Whitney Houston. He has penned other hits for a wide range of singers like Natalie Cole, Kenny Rogers, Linda Eder, The Moody Blues, and Johnny Mathis. What makes his Character Approved story so unique is that unlike those who start in theatre aspiring to work in other art forms, Wildhorn gave up an extremely lucrative pop music writing career to purse his first love--theatre--and he's been doing it ever since.

[Image: Frank Wildhorn with the Broadway Cast of Wonderland, BroadwayWorld.com]